Last Supper has a secret score, claims musician

IT’S a new Da Vinci code, but this time it could be for real. An Italian musician and computer technician claims to have uncovered musical notes encoded in Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper.

It raises the possibility that the Renaissance genius might have left behind a sombre composition to accompany the scene depicted in the work. “It sounds like a requiem,” said Giovanni Maria Pala. “It is like a soundtrack that emphasises the passion of Jesus.” Painted from 1494 to 1498 in Milan’s Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the Last Supper vividly depicts Jesus’ last meal with the 12 Apostles before his arrest and crucifixion.

Mr Pala, a 45-year-old musician, began studying Leonardo’s painting in 2003, after hearing on a news programme that researchers believed the artist and inventor had hidden a musical composition in the work.